December 12, 2005

Holy Tango of Literature

The always excellent the nonist points the way to Frances Heaney's Holy Tango of Literature [freely available here], which, according to the author, aims to answer the question "what would happen if poets and playwrights wrote works whose titles were anagrams of their names." Here's a sample:

BANGLES LINGER
ALLEN GINSBERG

I.
I saw the worst bands of my generation outselling Madness, boring
ridiculous catchy,
dragging themselves through the three-chord charts each night looking
for a leggy hit,
muttonheaded singers walking like the ancient Egyptians unconcerned
about finding intellect in the gray matter of fans,
who radios and Walkmans and ringing-eared and high stayed up dancing in
the supernatural darkness of hand-stamping clubs surfing across the
heads of mosh pits contemplating grunge,
who blared their songs by Heaven 17 and saw MTV veejays staggering on
camera while intoxicated,
who were expelled from the record stores for rowdy & shoplifting
obscure tapes down the pockets of their pants,
who skanked all night to the English Beat as Bangles singles sold like
husbands to Zsa Zsa and punks absorbed their Fugazi, listening to the
crash of drums on the hideous jukebox,
who scored autographs from rockstars rockstars rockstars breathing in
their blow toward talkative charm in narcissist night,
who climbed up America’s Top Forty this actually happened and walked
away unknown and forgotten into the ghastly haze of second-rate state
fair tours & shopping malls, not even one bowl of green M&M’s,
with the one hit that made them a wonder for life belching out of their
cheap rented amps to hear a thousand times.